TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
28 AUGUST 2016
The Gospel
of Saint Luke contains many stories of Jesus reclining at table and sharing
meals. Sharing meals allowed him to
share fellowship and satisfy the deepest hungers of people. He had fed thousands of people with five
loaves and two fish. He shared meals
with sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes.
He would share one last meal with his disciples on the night before he
died, giving himself to generations of followers in his real presence under the
form of bread and wine. Jesus considered
meals to be sacred events.
Today,
Jesus dines at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, the “holy” people of
his day. The dinner occurs on a Sabbath,
the week’s most sacred day set aside for worship of God and time for rest. The Pharisee had invited a man suffering from
dropsy, knowing that Jesus would certainly notice his very visible illness. Not
only does Jesus notice the man, but, as Lord of the Sabbath, he heals the man
and dismisses him. He then turns to his
hosts and asks what they would have done if a son or an ox had fallen into a
cistern. They are unable to answer his
question. They know that they would have
acted, even on a Sabbath, and could not openly challenge Jesus healing one of
the Father’s beloved children.
Because our Scripture skips that account,
we pick up the story in today’s Gospel. Instead
of sharing a meal in fellowship and communion, they watch him to see what he
will do next. But, he turns the tables
on them and watches what they are doing.
He notices that guests are scrambling to get the places of honor at the
table. They compete to assert their
close relationship with the host and their importance to him. Just as he had made a strong statement by
healing the man suffering from dropsy, now he tells a strong parable about
humility. Those who grab the best places
put themselves at risk when they try to bring honor to themselves. In a culture of honor and shame, they are shamed
when the host tells them to take the lowest place. Instead, Jesus says, take the lowest
place. If there is an authentic
relationship with the host, he will address them with the affectionate title of
friend and invite them to a higher position.
Jesus does not confine this parable
to those gathered at that meal in the home of the leading Pharisee. He tells it to us, gathered for this Sacred
Meal. He reminds us that humility is one
of the most important virtues in the spiritual life. The word “humility” comes from the Latin word
humus, which means earth. The Lord has formed us from the clay of the
earth. Truly humble people understand
that everything we are and have is a gift from God. We do not have to build ourselves up for
others to see or brag about any of our relationships or any of our
accomplishments. In learning to be truly
humble, we make an ultimate act of faith and abandon ourselves to the will and
care of God. We do not deny our
gifts. Instead, we are grateful.
Jesus took the lowest place in
taking on human flesh and shared meals with sinners, tax collectors, and
prostitutes. He reached out to the poor,
the crippled, the lame, and the blind, knowing that they could never repay him. Because he humbled himself, took the lowest
place, and died on the cross, the Father raised him from the dead and seated him
at the highest place. He has invited us
to this Sacred Meal, not because we can pay him back, but because he knows the
ways each of us are poor, crippled, lame, and blind. Once he feeds us at the table of his Word and
the Table of the Eucharist, he challenges us to do the same. Last Wednesday, a couple came to my rescue
and did the work of hosting a meal for members of Parish Council and their
families. When I thanked them publicly,
the woman blurted out: “Don’t thank
us. We did this to be thanked in
heaven!” That should be true for all of
us, as we hear the Lord speaking to us and as we are fed by the Lord’s Body and
Blood at this Sacred Meal.
No comments:
Post a Comment